This car was a one-off special completed in March 1925 for Cecil Kimber, the then manager of Morris Garages in Oxford, and is the first MG built especially for motorsport.

Although traditionally called ‘Old Number One’, this is not the first MG. A saloon based on the Bullnose Morris chassis had been advertised under the famous initials in 1923 and several more MG sports cars followed before the year was out.

Kimber entered the car in the Land’s End Trial in April 1925 and was awarded a Gold Medal. His passenger was Wilfred Matthews, later described by Kimber as “my first passenger in my first MG”.

Early MGs, including this ‘Kimber Special’, were based on standard chassis with special coachwork. The 1921 engine is an overhead valve version of the side-valve Hotchkiss engine normally found in the Bullnose Morris.

The whole car is reputed to have cost £279 to build and soon after the Land’s End Trial, Cecil Kimber sold it a friend, Harry Turner of Stockport, for £300. After it went through several ownerships, MG bought it back in 1932 for the princely sum of £15.